i'm so glad it's monday...said no one ever.

mondays = death.

that is how i felt driving to work this morning.

i had the best best
best weekend, which is probably one of the reasons why waking up
today to go to work felt so lousy.

i thought that on
Saturday i was going to be helping Ethan's sister's little family
move.  turns out, they didn't need me, so i declared it an unplanned
Day of Charla.

before Ethan went to
help his sister move, we had an early morning coffee together.   then,
i took the longest shower.   ate a quesadilla and watched The Hills. 
took forever doing my make-up and talked to my best friend.  went to
the cutest little cafe called Milk & Honey and got this AMAZING blended vanilla chai.  then, i had an amazing dance party in my car,
while i drove to the mall.

i had a great time
by myself at the mall.   i mostly window-shopped--tried on shoes and
people-watched--although i did treat myself to a manicure.

i had another dance
party on the way back to my city.  there was basically no traffic on
the freeway.  the sun was setting in the distance.  warm air poured
in my windows.

for those of you who don't know me in person, i bag on California a lot.  the politics and the traffic are enough to drive anyone crazy.  but in that moment, i knew there was no where else in the entire world that i wanted to be.

after i got back to
the area around my house, i ran some errands, then went home.  i made
another quesadilla and watched some more of The Hills.   after catching
up on my Facebook feed, i poured myself a glass of wine, lit my
pumpkin spice candles, turned on some worship music, and started in
on some knitting.  happiness in a nutshell.

Ethan and i only had
Sunday together, which we were both a little sad about, but we made
an amazing day out of it.

we got a late
breakfast at Mimi's cafe--sat outside in the sunshine and held hands
over lattes.  after running a couple errands, we headed to the beach,
where it was near-close to perfection.   i always forget how wonderful
the beach is when all the tourists are gone.  and my goodness, it is
WONDERFUL.  i got ice cream, Ethan got a sno-cone, and we browsed the shops and talked
about how moments like that are moments that people DREAM about
having.  "and we're living it!" Ethan said, taking a huge bite out of his icy dessert.  we wandered
down to the water shortly after that.   the waves were huge, the water was clear, and not a cloud in the sky.  it was the perfect day.   we played
in the waves for awhile, got completely soaking wet, then took a
long, sandy walk back to the car.

that night, Ethan
took me out to a romantic dinner at a fancy place called The Winery.  it was beyond WONDERFUL.  we were the only people seated outdoors, with all
kinds of greenery winding above us.  jazz music played softly in the
background.  we drank glasses of wine and ate bread and steaks and
grilled asparagus and the best fries ever.  and in honor of Ethan's
birthday this Wednesday, the server brought out an amazing creme
brulee, complete with birthday candle.  my own band of one sang
"Happy Birthday" to him, while he held my hands over the table.  it was really sweet.

he's so cute.

we also found out
later that all the servers in the restaurant could see us through the
window.  the woman who brought us our food said that all of them had
voted us "cutest couple in the restaurant." we seem to get
that often because we can never stop holding hands or laughing or
kissing. and i have no idea how many other people inside the
restaurant we were competing with;) but i love that it's apparent to
everyone in the universe how happy we are together.

after our bellies
were completely, unbelievably full, we went back to my house, where
we talked and watched Best of Will Ferrell SNL until around midnight.  and i had to be out
of bed at 5.  yikes.

the first hour of work was rough, but after i got some coffee and peanut butter toast in my system, i was ready to rock and roll.  so the late night was absolutely worth it.

and now, it's October.  one of my favorite months of the year.  and even though it's about 1,000 degrees outside where i'm at, i'm still drinking a cinnamon vanilla steamer, just to celebrate the first day of this glorious month.  i plan on making it a good one:)

happy Monday

&&
happy October, friends<3